J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien ( Bloemfontein , Orange Free State , January 3 1892 - Bournemouth , September 2 1973 ) was an English philologist , poet , theologian and professor of English language and literature. He was best known as the author of The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion , making him the father of modern fantasy literature that he was. Tolkien was a professor from 1925 to 1945 in the Anglo-Saxon language at the University of Oxford from 1945 to 1959 and professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College . He was a good friend of CS Lewis , a fellow member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings . On March 28, 1972, Tolkien by QueenElizabeth II appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. After Tolkien's death, published his son Christopher various works of his father and his notes and unfinished stories. Appeared in 1977 as The Silmarillion , which Tolkien had worked most of his life. Together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is a set of stories, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essaysabout the world Arda and the continent of Middle-earth . Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien used the term legendarium to the majority of his work with them to interpret. Although many authors have published fantasy of Tolkien, the success led to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to a revival of the genre. This ensured that Tolkien the "father" of modern fantasy literature - or, more concretely, of the subgenre high fantasy . In 2008 The Times placed him in sixth place of the 50 greatest British writers''since 1945 and in 2009 he was in fifth place of top-earning deceased. In 2012 showed the archives of the Nobel Prize, which Tolkien in 1961 had been rejected for theNobel Prize in Literature partly because of his "mediocre storytelling" and "lean prose" ''(poor prose). Content [ hide ] * 1 Biography ** 1.1 Origins ** 1.2 Early years ** 1.3 Subsequent youth ** 1.4 Engagement and marriage ** 1.5 First World War *** 1.5.1 Home Front ** 1.6 University career and writing career ** 1.7 Family ** 1.8 Friendships ** 1.9 Retirement and later life ** 1:10 Death * 2 Beliefs ** 2.1 Faith ** 2.2 Politics * 3 Writer Career ** 3.1 Influences *** 3.1.1 Writers *** 3.1.2 Germanic inspiration *** 3.1.3 Celtic inspiration ** 3.2 The Silmarillion ** 3.3 Children's Books ** 3.4 The Hobbit ** 3.5 The Lord of the Rings ** 3.6 Posthumous publications * 4 Languages and philology ** 4.1 Linguistic career ** 4.2 Language Structure * 5 Heritage ** 5.1 Operations *** 5.1.1 Illustrations and music *** 5.1.2 Films ** 5.2 Tolkien Society Unquendor ** 5.3 Copyrights ** 5.4 Named ** 5.5 Blue plaques * 6 Bibliography * 7 External links edit Descent [ edit ] Gravestone in Bunhill Fields forWilliam Shrubsole and Tolkien's grandparents. Tolkien's paternal ancestors were mostly artisans who made clocks, watches and pianos and sold in London and Birmingham . The Tolkien family immigrated in the 18th century from the German Kingdom of Saxony to the UK and soon became a real English family. The more prosaic family members said that Tolkien in 1756 in England arrived, fleeing the invasion of the Electorate of Saxony by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War . The name Tolkien is an English corruption of Tollkiehn of the German''TollKühn'' what "reckless" or "reckless" means. Many other families with the surname Tolkien or a variant thereof living in the northwest of Germany, mainly in Lower Saxony and Hamburg. A German writer thinks the name is derived from Tolkien Tolkynen, the Old Prussian name of the village Tołkiny near Kętrzyn in north-eastern Poland (then East Prussia ), although it is fairly far from Lower Saxony. Tolkien's maternal grandparents, John and Edith Jane Suffield, were Baptists who lived in Birmingham. They had a shop. The Suffield family had since the beginning of the nineteenth century different companies who were led out of the same building, Lamb House. Since 1810, had Tolkien's great-grandfather William Suffield a bookstore.Tolkien's great-grandfather, also John Suffield, there had since 1826 a clothing store. years Edit Christmas card from 1892 with a colored photograph of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to family inBirmingham . John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein in the former Orange Free State (what is now the South African province of Free State is). He was the son of Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857-1896), an English bank manager and his wife Mabel Suffield (1870-1904). When Arthur was promoted to head of a British bank in Bloemfontein left the couple from England to South Africa. Tolkien had a younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, who was born on February 17, 1894. As a child, Tolkien was bitten in the garden with a large African baboon spider . This event would return later in his stories, although there Tolkien to have no specific recollection of, nor had developed a special hatred of spiders. When he was three years old, Tolkien went with his mother and his brother to England for a lengthy family visit.His father, however, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could come to England. This family was left without income, so pulled it in with the grandparents in Birmingham. A short time later, in 1896, the family moved to Sarehole (now in Hall Green ), then still a village in Worcestershire was. Tolkien was keen on research in the mill Sarehole and Moseley Bog (a nature reserve), the Clent Hills and Malvern Hills . These places later formed a source of inspiration for his books, as was the case with the villages in Worcestershire, including Bromsgrove , Alcester and Alverchurch . So did his uncles farm Bag End , a name that would return in Tolkien's stories. Mabel taught her two sons himself. Ronald, as he was called, was a smart student. His mother taught him much about botany and brought him to the love of plants with. Young Tolkien drew like landscapes and trees, but prefers he learned languages. His mother taught him the principles of the Latin at. He could already read when he was four, and not much later he could write well. His mother showed him a lot. He hated Treasure Island and The Pied Piper ( Pied Piper of Hamelin ) and found Alice in Wonderland byLewis Carroll funny but confusing. He loved stories about Indians and the fantasy novels of George MacDonald . In addition, the Fairy Books were of Andrew Lang very important to him and his later work. Tolkien went to King Edward's School in Birmingham, where he was drafted into the honor guard of the parade to celebrate the coronation of King George V . He was standing near the gate of Buckingham Palace . Later he went to St. Philip's School. Mabel Tolkien was converted in 1900 to Catholicism , despite strong protests from her Mennonite family, then their financial support to its ceased. In 1904, when Tolkien was 12 years old, she died from the effects of diabetes type 1 in Fern Cottage in Rednal in Birmingham, where she then lived. Mabel Tolkien was about 34 years old, about as old as time someone with that type diabetes without treatment could be - insulin would be discovered until two decades later. She is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Bromsgrove ( Worcestershire ). Tolkien would the rest of his life his mother as a martyr considering her faith. Shortly before her death, Mabel Tolkien had the custody of her sons assigned to EH Francis Xavier Morgan of the oratorio of Birmingham, who had to educate them as goodCatholics . He lived in the shadow of Perrott's Folly and the Victorian tower of Edgbaston Waterworks, which may have influenced the image of the dark towers in his work. The romantic medieval paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites have had a strong influence on his work. Later youth [ edit ] In 1911, when he studied at King Edward's School in Birmingham, Tolkien founded together with three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman, a secret society that they called TCBS. These initials mean Tea Club and Barrovian Society and was an allusion to their fondness for drinking tea in Barrow's Stores near their school and sneak into the library of the school. After school, the members contact and in December 1914 they held a meeting in London at Wiseman home, which Tolkien to write poetry brought. In the summer of 1911, Tolkien went on holiday to Switzerland , he still remembers vividly in a letter from 1968. He therein mention of Bilbo 's journey through the Misty Mountains (including the sliding party on the smooth stones in the woods) and This is derived directly from his own adventure when their company from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen walked and eventually camped in the moraines at Mürren . Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien was still remember him with a heavy heart goodbye to the view of the eternal snows of the Jungfrau and the Eiger . They traveled along the Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald and along the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen . They continued their journey to the Grimsel and the Valais to Brig . From there they went to the Aletsch glacier and Zermatt . In October of that year Tolkien went to study at Exeter College of Oxford University . Initially he studied classical languages, but later English study. He graduated in 1915 . Engagement and wedding [ edit ] At sixteen taught Tolkien Edith Mary Bratt know who was three years older. JRR and Hilary Tolkien lived in the same boarding house. Humphrey Carpenter writes that Edith and Ronald went regularly to tearooms in Birmingham, preferably to a tea room with a balcony facing the street. They were there to throw sugar in the hats of passers-by and as the sugar bowl was empty she went to the next table. There had to be something beautiful blossom between two very like-minded people. They were both pointed and both had a need for affection and that could also give each other. In the summer of 1909 they knew they were in love.3 EH Francis Morgan, his guardian, found that Edith Tolkien too distracted from his studies and also found it problematic that his young pupil had a serious relationship with a Protestant. He forbade her to see him, to speak or even to write until he was 21. Tolkien had a strict ban, with a few exceptions, allowing Morgan threatened to halt his university career if he did not stop with it. Just before his 21th birthday Edith Tolkien wrote a letter, and he declared his love and asked her to marry him. Edith replied that she was already engaged to another man; She had done this because she thought Tolkien no longer cared about her. They walked together again bump and a railroad overpass their love blossomed again. Edith gave her engagement ring back and told me she was marrying Tolkien. After they were engaged, Edith converted on the insistence of Tolkien to the Catholic faith. In January 1913 she became engaged in Birmingham on March 22, 1916 they were married in Warwick in Saint Mary Immaculate Catholic Church. War [ edit ] The UK meanwhile, was involved in the First World War . Tolkien volunteered in the British Army and became a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. His training at the 13th (reserve) battalion in Cannock Chase , Staffordshire lasted eleven months. He was then transferred to the 11th battalion of the British Expeditionary Force and he came on June 4, 1916 in France to. This he later wrote, "Young officers were killed in droves to be separated from my wife ... I went to it under.." During the Battle of the Somme was Tolkien liaison officer . He also took part in the Battle of Thiepval . He was on October 27 1916 suffering from trench fever , a disease that was transmitted by lice, which teemed in the trenches. Tolkien went on November 8, 1916 as a disabled veteran back to England. Many of his close friends, including his fellow TCBS members Gilson and Smith, were killed. Years later said about Tolkien indignant that those who were looking for similarities between his books and the First World War there were totally wrong: : "We must really get under the shadow of war to feel fully its pressure, but as the years pass, it is now often seems to have forgotten that it was no less unpleasant experience to be caught in youth by 1914 then for 1939 and subsequent years to get involved in the war. By 1918, all my best friends, but one dead. 4 A weakened and emaciated Tolkien - he was rejected for the front - spent the rest of the war in military hospitals or garrison duty. Then was born the first son of Edith and JRR, John Francis Reuel Tolkien. edit During his recovery in Great Haywood, Staffordshire Tolkien began writing what he called The Book of Lost Tales. He began writing The Fall of Gondolin. In 1917 and 1918, kept returning, his illness but he was sufficiently recovered to serve in their own country in various barracks and was promoted to lieutenant . When he was stationed in Kingston upon Hull, he went along with Edith walking in the woods near Rose and there Edith danced for him in a clearing among the flowering hemlock . : "We walked into a forest where hemlock grew into a sea of white flowers." 5 This event was the inspiration for the meeting between Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien called Edith often my Lúthien. 6 Academic career and writing career [ edit ] After the First World War, Tolkien initially for the Oxford English Dictionary work, where he mainly concerned with the history and etymology of originally German words beginning with the letter W. In 1920 he becamea lecturer in English at the University of Leeds and 1924 he became there professor appointed. In Leeds, he published "A Middle English Vocabulary" and together with EV Gordon an authoritative edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , which for decades were considered both as an academic standard works. In 1925 he returned to Oxford and became a professor there in the Old English language at the university. At that time, Tolkien began writing The Hobbit (The Hobbit) and the first two parts of the Ring In the Ban (The Lord of the Rings). 20 Northmoor Road, former home of JRR Tolkien in Oxford . Tolkien's essay of 1936 "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics", has been a lasting influence on the investigation Beowulf . Lewis E. Nicholson said Tolkien article is considered a turning point in the criticism of Beowulf. According to him, Tolkien put emphasis on the poetic nature of the story rather than on the more linguistic elements. At the time, Beowulf by scholars generally scorned as a childish story of battles with monsters rather than a realistic story about tribal wars. Tolkien suggested that the writer of Beowulf human destiny in general-item and was not limited to tribal wars and that the samples therefore necessary for the poem. In his essay, Tolkien also shows how much respect he had for Beowulf "Beowulf is among my most valuable resources." This influence can be found in The Lord of the Rings. In 1945 Tolkien was a professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College of Oxford University and he remained until his retirement in 1959 . In 1948Tolkien completed in of the Rings, almost ten years after he first was begun. Tolkien also worked on the translation of the "Jerusalem Bible", which appeared in 1966. edit JRR Tolkien and Edith had four children: John Francis Reuel Tolkien (17 November 1917-22 January 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien (22 October 1920-27 February 1984), Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (born November 21, 1924) and Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien (born June 18, 1929). Tolkien adored his children when they were small, he sent them letters with drawings of Santa Claus . Every year there were more characters to like the polar bear, the helper of Santa Claus, Snowman, the gardener, Ilbereth eleven, his secretary and other characters. The main characters tell stories about the battle of Santa Claus at the gnomes who flew on bats and the jokes that the polar bear shuffled. edit Tolkien taught CS Lewis met in Oxford. This was probably his best friend and colleague, although their relationship cooled as they grew older. They shared a love of good conversation, laughter and beer and in May 1927 made Tolkien Lewis joined the "Coalbiters club" which Icelandic sagas read in the original Old Norse . This, as Humphrey Carpenter put it "the beginning of a long and complicated friendship." Tolkien and CS Lewis Hugh Dyson brought back closer to Christianity. During their meetings with the Inklings Lewis at home, but also private, reading Tolkien share, on request from The Silmarillion , The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for Lewis. The arrival of Charles Williams , who worked for the Oxford University Press , changed the relationship between Tolkien and Lewis. Lewis' enthusiasm shifted almost imperceptibly from Tolkien to Williams, especially when Lewis was busy writing his third novel, That Hideous Strength . Tolkien made himself very busy long about what he considered the anti-Catholic attitudes of Lewis. In a letter to his son Christopher , he said: : "The hatred against our Church is ultimately the only real foundation of the Anglican Church - this is so strong that it remains intact when the umbrella seems to have disappeared (CSL respects the Blessed Sacrament and admires nuns!) But as one. Lutheran ends up in jail, he is ready for battle; but as Catholic priests are slaughtered, he does not believe it (and I believe that he thinks they have asked). " 7 Lewis' growing reputation as a Christian apologist and his return to the Anglican Church annoyed Tolkien, who had a deep dislike of the Anglican Church. In the mid forties Tolkien felt that Lewis got too much publicity. Tolkien and Lewis might have been able to get a closer bond when they stayed in Headington, but Lewis's marriage to Joy Davidman prevented this. Tolkien noted that Lewis expected that his friends would visit him and his wife. When he was in the thirties was single and the Inklings held their meetings, he ignored the fact that his friends were themselves married. It did not help that Lewis Tolkien initially told nothing about his marriage with Davidman and then Tolkien eventually found there, he also found out that Lewis had married a divorced woman. This was against Tolkien's Catholic faith. He also described the marriage as "very strange". In the fifties there was an end to the regular visits of Tolkien Lewis, and this also meant the end of Tolkien's "cozy" period, which was at school started the TCBS and ended with the Inklings in Oxford. His friendship with Lewis lived later on. Tolkien had this to say in a letter to Priscilla after Lewis's death in November 1963: : "Until now I have felt normal things for a man of my age - like an old tree that one one loses all its leaves - this feels like an ax blow to my roots." 8 WH Auden who as a student had been taught by Tolkien, was on occasion a journalist and was from the mid fifties until Tolkien's death on friendly terms with him. The friendship was caused by Auden was captivated by " The Lord of the Rings . " Auden was one of the first and most important critics are praising the book. Tolkien wrote in a letter in 1971: I owe the past few years has been to Auden. His support and interest have encouraged me greatly in my work. From the outset, he wrote me good reviews, notes and letters, at a time when it still was not at all obvious. He was even mocked. 9 Retirement and later life [ edit ] During his retirement, from 1959 until his death in 1973, Tolkien was gradually increasing to be in the public interest and grew his fame in the literary field. His books sold so well that he regretted that he had not previously retired. At first, he answered questions from his fans still love, but he harbored a certain suspicion towards the creation of fan clubs, especially among the hippie movement in the United States . In a letter from 1972, he regrets that he is an idol has become, but he admits that "... even the nose of a very modest idol ... is not totally insensitive to the sweet smell of incense" 10 Due to the increasing attention of fans Tolkien was forced to request an unlisted phone number and eventually he moved along with Edith at Bournemouth on the south coast of England. On January 1, 1972 Tolkien by Queen Elizabeth II knighted in the Order of the British Empire and on March 28, 1972 he was awarded the accolade at Buckingham Palace . Death [ edit ] Headstone of JRR Tolkien Edith Tolkien died on November 29, 1971, at the age of 82. Tolkien had the name Lúthien engraved on the tombstone in the cemetery at Wolvercote in Oxford . When Tolkien 21 months later, on September 2, 1973, died at the age of 81, he was buried in the same grave and the name was Beren engraved on the tombstone. The epitaph reads: : Edith Mary Tolkien : Lúthien : John Ronald Reuel Tolkien : Bears Beliefs [ edit ] Tolkien was a devout Catholic and he had mostly conservative religious and political views. He often preferred the old customs and habits and raised questions on someinnovations and modernizations . He also hated the side effects of industrialization , which devastated the British countryside, according to him. Almost his entire adult life, he had an aversion to cars and he preferred bicycles. This attitude is also reflected in his books, the most famous example of the imagination of the forced industrialization of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings. Much has been written and said about possible similarities between Middle Earth 11 and Tolkien's own life. Of The Lord of the Rings is often claimed that the England during and immediately after the Second World War should propose. Tolkien pulls against a lot of leather in the preface to the second edition of the novel and says he prefers applicability above allegory . This theme is further developed in his essay On Fairy-Stories , which he argues that fairy tales are so striking because they sometimes correspond to reality. He comes to the conclusion that Christianity also follows this pattern of inner coherence and outer truth. His faith in the see fundamental truths of Christianity and their place in the mythology bring some critics committed Christian themes in The Lord of the Rings, despite a remarkable lack of overt religious references.This is not surprising, because the phenomena that lead our world to religious impulses, are in Middle-earth, a normal and natural part of the natural environment. Tolkien had great difficulty with the use of religious references in the stories of CS Lewis, who were often overtly allegorical nature. However, Tolkien wrote that the venue of Mount Doom was an explanation of the Our Father. His love of myths and his devout faith came together in his assertion that he believed the mythology the divine resonance of Truth. This view was expressed in his poem Mythopoeia and his view that myths contain fundamental truths were in general a central theme of the Inklings . Believe [ edit ] Tolkien's faith played an important role in the conversion of CS Lewis from atheism to Christianity, but Tolkien was very disappointed that Lewis chose to join the Anglican Church , which Tolkien, unlike the Catholic Church , a pathetic and murky mix of half-forgotten traditions and beliefs found mutilated. In the last years of his life Tolkien was very disappointed with certain liturgical reforms and changes that were made after the Second Vatican Council and his grandson Simon Tolkien says: : "I remember well that I went with him to the church in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it happened not long after the Church in the liturgy, the Latin was replaced by English. My grandfather was clearly not disagreed and said aloud in Latin, while the rest of the parish responded in English. I found it all rather embarrassing, but my grandfather was himself completely innocent. He just did as he felt it belonged. " 12 edit Tolkien's approach was guided by his Catholicism. When he found out that Republican death squads during the Spanish Civil War destroyed churches and widely priests and nuns killed, he supported the Nationalists (who later by Franco would be conducted). After meeting in 1944, he also admired the South African poet and fellow Catholic Roy Campbell . Campbell would have fought in Spain on the side of Franco's army and therefore Tolkien saw him as a defender of the Catholic faith. CS Lewis on the other hand criticized in his poems openly Campbells' mix of Catholicism and fascism . " Scholars disagree on whether racist or racial elements in Tolkien's views to be found. Christine Chism distinguishes the allegations in three categories: intentional racism , unconscious Eurocentric prejudices and latent racism in Tolkien's earlier work (which is also developing a conscious rejection of racist tendencies in his later work). It is known that Tolkien the " racial doctrine "and the anti-Semitism of the Nazis condemned as "totally depraved and unscientific." About racial segregation in South Africa , he said: : "The treatment of blacks almost always scares off anyone who comes from Britain . " 13 In 1968 he objected to the characterization of Middle-earth as " Nordic "because he said to dislike the term because of its connection with racist theories. Tolkien knew nothing but contempt for Hitler , whom he accused of "degenerate ... and forever cursing the noble Nordic spirit" that was so dear to him. In a 1944 letter to his son Christopher, he wrote: : "It saddens me to see how the press is the same dubious level decreases as Goebbels in his heyday and with screaming headlines saying that any German commander holding out in a desperate situation (if he is to do so militarily forced) a drunkard and a crazy fanatic . There was an important article in the local newspaper, which advocated serious was that the systematic extermination of the entire German nation, the only correct solution after military victory: because they are, if I may be so bold, rattlesnakes and they know it verschil niet tussen goed en kwaad! (En de schrijver dan?) De Duitsers hebben net zoveel recht om te beweren dat Polen en Joden ongedierte zijn en minder dan menselijk, als wij hebben om de Duitsers te veroordelen: met andere woorden, we hebben daar geen enkel recht toe, wat ze dan ook gedaan mogen hebben." 14 The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki filled him with disgust and he describes the creators of the atomic bomb as "this insane physicists" and "builders of Babel." Writer Career [ edit ] For " The Book of Lost Tales , "which Tolkien wrote when he recovered from the trenches illness he suffered during the Battle of the Somme , he devised several themes that were later used in the successive versions of his " legendarium ". The two most remarkable stories, the legend of Beren and Lúthien and that of Túrin , continued in long narrative poems (published in " The Lays of Beleriand "). Influences [ edit ] Writers [ edit ] The centipede William Morris had a profound influence on Tolkien. He wanted to Morris' prosaic and poetic adventure stories imitate and drew it to The Lord of the Rings , gaining inspiration for the names of eg the "Dead Marshes (Dead Marshes) "and the" Mirkwood (Mirkwood). " Edward Wyke-Smith's Marvelous Land of the Snergs , with its typical characters, has had a major influence on events, themes and description of Bilbo's people in The Hobbit . Tolkien wrote that as a child he was very impressed by SR Crocketts historical novel The Black Douglas and Sauron in his villain, Gilles de Retz , was based. Germanic inspiration [ edit ] Tolkien is also strongly influenced by Germanic languages , especially through the Old English literature , poetry and mythology . He drew inspiration from works like Beowulf , Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) and Norse sagas , such as the Völsunga Saga and Hervarar saga , the poetic Edda , the Nibelungenlied and other similar cultural works. Despite the similarities between his work and the Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied , which formed the basis for Richard Wagner's operas, critics feel that the direct agreements are small. As his publisher said:"Both rings were round, there the resemblance ends." Other critics find Tolkien's idea of a ring that gives the wearer dominion over the world owes to Wagner and his Der Ring des Nibelungen . Two characteristics of the One Ring , the hostile nature and corrupting power of mind and will, were not present in the mythological or historical sources, but play a central role in Wagner's opera. Tolkien himself admitted that he Homer ,Sophocles and the Finnish Kalevala has used as inspiration for his stories or ideas. Celtic inspiration [ edit ] From Tolkien's work that he aspects of the Celtic borrowed history and legends. But after the manuscript for The Silmarillion was rejected, among other things, are Celtic names, Tolkien rejected their Celtic origins: : "It is needless to say that they are not Celtic stories that neither I know Celtic things and feel a certain distaste for it:!.. Mainly because of their fundamental lack of logic They have bright colors, but as a broken, damaged glass window that sloppy again put together they are actually "crazy" as your reader says -. but I do not think I am. " 15 The Silmarillion [ edit ] JRR Tolkien wrote a brief "Sketch of the Mythology" , where the stories of Beren and Lúthien and Túrin part of. Eventually grew the "Sketch" from the Quinta Silmarillion , an epic story that Tolkien had started three times, but he never finished. He hoped to publish with the trilogy The Lord of the Rings , but the publishers (both Allen & Unwin and Collins) dared not. Moreover, the cost of printing a book were very high in the first years after World War II. This was also one of the reasons that The Lord of the Rings was published in three parts. These three stories are concept posthumously published under the name of The History of Middle-earth , by his son Christopher Tolkien , which his father's drafts edited and explained. From 1936, he began to expand the story by adding a new story, The Fall of Númenor , a story based on the legend of Atlantis . Children's Books [ edit ] Besides writing mythological poetry, even Tolkien liked to devise fantasy stories to entertain his children. Here was the book The Hobbit resulted from. He wrote letters every year from the Santa Claus for them, which he built a series of short stories. These were later merged and published. Other stories were Mr. Bliss , Roverandom , The Blacksmith of Great wolding and Boer Gilles of Ham . For these stories he used, like for The Hobbit ideas are legendarium . The Hobbit [ edit ] Tolkien never expected his stories would be so popular, but by chance pulled the book The Hobbit he had written years earlier for his children, in 1936 the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing house Allen & Unwin , which convinced him to allow editing. The book attracted the attention of adults and it became so popular that the publisher asked Tolkien to write a sequel. The Lord of the Rings [ edit ] Although he was not initially inspired feel for such a topic, this request meant that Tolkien began work on his most famous work: the epic, three-part novel, In the Ring Lord of the Rings (published 1954-1955).Tolkien took more than ten years to create the background for the trilogy. During this period was JRR Tolkien support from his friends, the Inklings , especially his best friend CS Lewis , the author of The Chronicles of Narnia . The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are both based on the tales of The Silmarillion , but take place much later. The intention was that Tolkien The Lord of the Rings, a children would be in the same style as The Hobbit , but it soon became darker and more serious in terms of writing style. Although it was a sequel to The Hobbit , it was aimed at an older audience and Embroidered upon the enormous background stories of Beleriand , Tolkien had written earlier. However, these stories were published after Tolkien's death, including in''The Silmarillion'' . Tolkien himself had a great influence on the fantasy genre that arose after the success of The Lord of the Rings . The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 60s of the 20th century and has remained so ever since. It is one of the most popular works of fiction from the 20th century , as well as from sales of polls among readers shows. * 1999 "Book of the Millennium" , according to a poll by Amazon.com * 2003: The Lord of the Rings is the "most beloved British book" , according to a survey by the BBC . * 2004: "Favorite Book" , according to research by the Australian Broadcasting Channel . * 2002: Tolkien is the "Greatest Briton" according to a poll by the BBC . * 2004: Tolkien was thirty-fifth in the list of Greatest South Africans and was the only figure who appeared in both lists. The books are not only incredibly popular in English-speaking countries. In a poll in 2004 found 250,000 Germans The Lord of the Rings their favorite literary work. Posthumous publications [ edit ] JRR Tolkien had his son Christopher appointed literary executor. These published (with help from Guy Gavriel Kay) in 1977 as unpublished material entitled The Silmarillion . His father had in 1937 tried to publish a collection of 'Silmarillion' material, before The Lord of the Rings had written. In 1980, Christopher took another anthology under the title Unfinished Tales . In subsequent years (1983-1996) he published a large part of the remaining material, including notes of Tolkien himself in a series of twelve volumes entitled The History of Middle-earth . These include unfinished alternative and conflicting stories. Between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit , the most closely related works, no immediate connection because Tolkien's stories never completely align with each other in terms of tradition and background. When Tolkien was working in 1965 with the third edition of The Hobbit , he said he would like to rewrite the whole book, because he no longer liked the style of the prose. In 2007 the publication of The Children of Húrin . The novel tells the story of Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor , the children of Húrin Thalion . The material was composed by Christopher Tolkien in The Silmarillion , Unfinished Tales , The History of Middle-earth and unpublished work. The most recent work was published was The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun which appeared in February 2009. The 'Department of Special Collections and the Library of Marquette University in Milwaukee preserve many of Tolkien's manuscripts . Other original material is preserved in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University . Languages and philology [ edit ] Linguistic career [ edit ] Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and philology . He specialized in the ancient Greek philology at the university, and in 1915 he graduated with Old Norseas an extra subject. He worked from 1918 to the Oxford English Dictionary . In 1920 he went to the University of Leeds and began examining it the English language . He gave lectures on philology , Old English , the history of England and several Old English and Middle English texts. He also introduced the Germanic Gothic, medieval Old Icelandic and Welsh philology. In 1925, Tolkien applied at thirty-three to the job of Professor Anglo-Saxon, where he reported that some of his students at the University of Leeds a Viking Club had begun. He also had a knowledge of the Finnish language . Language Structure [ edit ] : See also Languages of Arda In addition to his professional work as a philologist, Tolkien had a great love for inventing artificial languages . This sometimes overshadowed his work that he has produced little academic work. The best-developed art languages Quenya and Sindarin , the language used by the elves. The etymological connection between these formed the core of his legendarium . Language and grammar for Tolkien were a matter ofaesthetics and fonoësthetica (the beautiful sound of a language). Especially Quenya was taken from fonoësthetische considerations and was intended as a kind of 'Elven Latin. Therefore it was phonologically based on Latin , with ingredients from Finnish, Welsh, English and Ancient Greek . In 1945 there was another language at: Adûnaisch or Númenoriaans , a language with a Semitic twist. This language was connected with Tolkien's Atlantis legend, which corresponds to his ideas that languages can not be inherited. Together with the Second Age and the story of Eärendil this was his legendarium. The popularity of Tolkien's books had a small but lasting impact on the use of language in fantasy literature in general. Many dictionaries accept Tolkien's spelling dwarves (dwarfs) and dwarvish (dwergs), in addition to the original spelling dwarfs and dwarfish , words that were barely used. source? Legacy [ edit ] Operations [ edit ] Illustrations and music [ edit ] In a letter to Milton Waldman 1951 Tolkien writes about his intentions to create a framework of more or less coherent legends', which: : "... The cycle had to be made to a majestic whole, but still had an opening for other thoughts and hands that could write about painting, music and drama." 16 The hands and minds of many artists are indeed inspired by Tolkien's legends. He knew Pauline Baynes personally. She was Tolkien's favorite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Boer Gilles of Ham .But he knew Donald Swann , who composed music for The Road Goes Ever On . Queen Margrethe II of Denmark illustrated in of the Rings at the beginning of the 70 she sent her work to Tolkien, who was surprised by the similarity between her drawings and sketches. Yet Tolkien was not happy with all the artistic work was based on his work and a part he disapproved. In 1946 he pointed illustrations of Horus English for the German edition of The Hobbit because he they " Disney-esque "were: : "... Bilbo with a runny nose and Gandalf as someone with vulgar humor, instead of Odin-like wandering what I have in my mind. " 17 Tolkien was skeptical about the origins of the Tolkien fan club in the United States, and in 1954 he returned the proposals for the cover of the American edition of In the Ring Lord of the Rings : : "Thanks for sending the proposed 'blurbs', which I sent back. The Americans are in fact not open to criticism and improvement. But I think their efforts so poor that I feel inclined to improve themselves. " 18 Movies [ edit ] When in 1958 he had received a script for a proposed film derived from The Lord of the Rings by Morton Grady Zimmerman, Tolkien wrote: : "I would ask them to try to understand the irritation of an author who finds increasingly that his work carelessly, and the occasional reckless treatment and no clear sign of understanding what it's all about." 19 Tolkien blue plaque at Sarehole Mill inBirmingham . Tolkien blue plaque at Plough and Harrow Hotel in Birmingham. Tolkien went on to criticize every scene of the script. Basically he was open to the idea of a film. In 1968 he sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists . But Tolkien explicitly forbade the Walt Disney Company in production would be involved, because he had a deep hatred for their work. United Artists never made a film and so the rights were sold in 1976 to Tolkien Enterprises . The first film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings published a year later. The animation , however, covered only the first half of the story. In 1977 there was an animated production of The Hobbit and in 1980 an animated The Return of the King , which somewhat matched the unfinished production in 1977. From 2001 to 2003 brought New Line Cinema The Lord of the Rings trilogy out. These were filmed in New Zealand and both produced and directed by Peter Jackson . The films were very successful and won several Oscars . Jackson snapped The Hobbit as a producer and director in three parts: in 2012 came the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , followed by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013 and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. Tolkien Society Unquendor [ edit ] Tolkien Society Unquendor is a Dutch association dedicated to promoting interest in the work of JRR Tolkien. Copyright [ edit ] See Tolkien Estate . Named [ edit ] After his death his name from Tolkien: * Asteroid 2675 Tolkien discovered in 1982 . * Tolkien Road in Eastbourne , East Sussex * Tolkien Way in Stoke-on-Trent is named after Tolkien's eldest son, John Francis Tolkien, who was a priest at the nearby Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Angels and St.Peter in Chains . * Avenue of Tolkien and a full district named after characters and names from the works of Tolkien. This area is located in the North Brabant place Geldrop . Blue plaques [ edit ] There are six blue plaques, which indicate places where Tolkien was. There's one in Oxford , one in Harrogate and four in Birmingham . * The plaques in Birmingham highlight three areas where he lived as a child, until he went to the University of Oxford went, and the fourth is a hotel where Tolkien spent in 1916. * The plaque in Oxford marks the place where JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and most of The Lord of the Rings wrote. * The plaque in Harrogate shows where Tolkien recovered from trench fever . edit Tomb of Edith (deceased November 29, 1971) and JRR Tolkien (deceased September 2, 1973), Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford * Published during his lifetime ** 1922 A Middle-English vocabulary (textbook) ** 1936 Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics ** 1937 The Hobbit ** 1945 Leaf by Niggle (short story, translated as Journal of Small ) ** 1946 Fairy stories: a critical study ** 1947 Tree and Leaf (collection of two works) ** 1949 Farmer Giles of Ham (translated as Farmer Gilles Ham ) ** 1954 The Fellowship ( The Fellowship of the Ring ), part 1 of The Lord of the Rings ( The Lord of the Rings ) ** 1954 The Two Towers ( The Two Towers ), part 2 of The Lord of the Rings ( The Lord of the Rings ) ** 1955 The Return of the King ( The Return of the King ), Part 3 of The Lord of the Rings ( The Lord of the Rings ) ** 1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book ) ** 1964 Tree and Leaf ( On Fairy Tales and Journal of Klein ) ** 1966 The Return of Beorhtnoth ( The Homecoming or Beorhtnoth ) ** 1967 Smith of Wootton Major ( Smith of Great wolding ) ** 1968 The road goes ever on * Published posthumously not Middle-earth material ** 1976 Letters to Santa Claus ** 1982 Mr. Bliss ** 1998 Roverandom * Published by Christopher Tolkien ** 1975 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo ** 1977 The Silmarillion ** 1980 Unfinished Tales ** 1981 JRR Tolkien's Letters ** 1983 The Monsters and the Critics (essays) ** 2007 The Children of Húrin ( The Children of Húrin ) ** 2009 The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun ( The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun ) ** 2013 Arthurs fall ( The Fall of Arthur ) * The series ''The History of Middle-earth'' ** 1983 The Book of Lost Tales 1 ** 1984 The Book of Lost Tales 2 ** 1985 The Lays of Beleriand ** 1986 The Shaping of Middle-earth ** 1987 The Lost Road and Other Writings ** 1988 The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.1) ** 1989 The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.2) ** 1990 The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.3) ** 1992 Sauron Defeated (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.4) ** 1993 Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion v.1) ** 1994 The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion v.2) ** 1996 The Peoples of Middle-earth * Remainder ** 2007 The History of The Hobbit * Poems and songs ** 1966 Bilbo's Last Song ** Category:British professor Category:British soldier in the First World War Category:British linguist Category:English writer Category:British fantasy writer Category:British philologist Category:Conlang Author Category:Polyglot Category:Roman Catholic person Category:JRR Tolkien Category:1892 births Category:1973 deaths